The First Sunday.

F. P.

(From the French.)

Christian Friend, vol. 13, 1886, p. 113.

(We should have preferred as title
"The First Lord's-day," but we have left it as written. E.D.)

It is worthy of notice, that neither the
end of John 19, nor the beginning of chap. 20, makes any mention of the day
intervening between the crucifixion and the resurrection of our blessed
Saviour. It was, however, the sabbath-day, so important both to the Jews and to
the disciples. Doubly solemn, too, on this occasion; for it was coincident with
the feast of the passover, and it is said "that sabbath day was an high
day." (John 19:31.)

The Jews,
scrupulous observers of forms, even in putting the Son of God to death, had not
been willing to enter the judgment-hall the night before, for fear of defiling
themselves and thus being unable to eat the passover. (John 18:28.) Then, in
the evening, after having got rid of the One who was the light of the world,
and whom they had crucified in company with two criminals, they requested
Pilate that the bodies might not remain on the cross during the sabbath, which
began at six o'clock in the evening.* They would have liked to avoid putting
the Lord to death during the feast, not because of their own consciences, but
so that there should be no tumult among the people (see Matt. 26:3-5); for
doubtless there was a vast assemblage from different places to celebrate the
passover. But the rulers were unable to carry out their designs, because,
unknown to themselves, they were accomplishing the purposes of God. And, alas!
no one among the people raised a voice for Christ. On the contrary, the
multitude, led on by their chiefs, chose that He should be crucified and
Barabbas released. (Mark 15:11-14.)

*The chief
priests and the Pharisees had not so many scruples about that day when they
came together to Pilate to ask him to make the sepulchre sure, and when they
themselves went to seal the stone and to set a watch. (Matt. 27:62-66.)

The Saviour
then passed into the grave on this high day of a sabbath, without the Word
making mention of this day in relation to Him. What a seal upon the reprobation
of the Jews, for whom the sabbath was the sign of their alliance with God! The
death of Jesus was the end of all that which had gone before, as His
resurrection was the beginning of a new order of things. Someone has said, in
speaking of the moment of the Saviour's death after crying with a loud voice,
"All was over: the atonement, perfect as to God, the work of redemption,
all prophetic circumstances had been accomplished, whether with regard to man
or God. Then with a cry, showing both bodily strength unimpaired and perfect
confidence in His Father, He gave up the ghost, at the moment when death had,
but henceforth lost, all its terrors, at least for the believer. With this cry,
which announced the termination of all human relationships with God, except in
judgment, and the end of all the means which God could employ to re-establish
such relationships with the children of Adam, Jesus died."

But the
Scriptures also speak to us of the burial of the Lord Jesus. Paul mentions it
in 1 Cor. 15:3, 4, and the gospels give details on this point which are in
accordance with prophecy. The earth would receive the body of God's Son, but
His sepulchre should be with the rich. "He made His grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in His death." (Isa. 53:9.) He would doubtless have
been interred in the public burying-place destined, according to Jewish custom,
to criminals, and it is probably there that the bodies of the two thieves were
thrown. But now that man had fully gratified his hatred, God takes care of the
One who had glorified Him even unto death. At this solemn moment came Joseph of
Arimathea, a counsellor, and a good man and just, who obtained permission from
Pilate to take the body. Nicodemus came also; and these two men of high rank
among heir nation, but who hitherto had been timid disciples, gave to the Lord
an honourable resting-place. At all events, we may observe, that the sabbath
day being at hand, the burial was of necessity only provisional, and was to be
accomplished after the sabbath. This we learn from John 19:42: "There
laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the
sepulchre was nigh at hand." The women who loved the Lord also prepared to
embalm Him at a future moment. Mark tells us (Mark 16:1), "And when the
sabbath was past" [after six o'clock in the evening], "Mary
Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome, had bought sweet spices,
that they might come and anoint Him." The same thing is recorded in Luke
23:55, 56.

The disciples,
really attached to the person of the Lord Jesus, at the same time, as faithful
Jews, clave in heart and conscience to ordinances. This hindered them from
completing the burial of their loved Master, which their affection for Him
would have desired. Let us note what a revered servant of the Lord has said of
the burying of the Lord Jesus: "In the invisible world Jesus was in
paradise; as to this world, all that He had was an interrupted funeral. Sin,
death, Satan, the judgment of God, had done all that one or the other could do;
His earthly life was ended, and with it all connection with this world and man,
as far as belonging to this world. Death reigned externally, even over God's
Son; serious souls who were aware of it were confounded. But the world went on
its way; the Passover was celebrated with its usual ceremonial; Jerusalem was
what it had been before. Society, that had satisfied its selfishness, and been
ridded of two thieves, cared little what had become of either of them, while
the absence of another whose presence had embarrassed it was a further relief.
But appearances are not always the truth. One of the thieves was in paradise
with Christ; the other beyond hope; while the Lord Himself was in all the
repose of perfect blessedness in the bosom of His Father. And as to the world,
it had lost its Saviour, and was to see Him no more."

When the
disciples had fulfilled the commandment in observing the sabbath, they
hastened, at least the women devoted to the Lord, to come at dawn of the first
day of the week to do honour to the body of their loved Master by finally
embalming it. But they arrived too late; the power, righteousness, glory, and
love of the Father had anticipated them in raising Christ from among the dead.
What a glorious morning! The beginning of an eternal era for the redeemed.

As to the
sabbath, it is the end and not the beginning of a thing. God had consecrated
the seventh day, after having finished the work of creation. On that day He
rested from all His work which He created to make. It is a type of the glorious
millennial sabbath,* which will terminate the existence of the present earth
and heavens. (Rev. 20.) Each time that Jehovah prescribed to Moses some new
statute the sabbath was named. In Lev. 23 it even heads the solemn feasts of
the Lord. Among the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20) its observance is pointed out in
detail, and supported by motives. In Ex. 31:12-17 it is solemnly ratified.
There and elsewhere it is called a sign between God and the children of Israel.
But early in their history the Israelites had neglected and abandoned this holy
ordinance, and they had borne the consequences of it (see Ezek. 20:12-24,
Ezek. 22:8, 26, Ezek. 23:38); and if, when the Lord appeared among His
people, they had begun again to keep it strictly, all was not the less in
ruins. Tradition and a legal observance of ceremonies, carried out in minutiae,
had taken the place of "the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy,
and faith." Pride and hypocrisy characterized the leaders of the people;
they did not wish to recognize Him who was Lord of the sabbath. Thus He could
not recognize their sabbath, and He had to work in grace with His Father, even
on the sabbath-day. (John 5:9-18, John 9:14; see also Matt. 12:1-15; Luke
13:10-17, Luke 14:16.)

* See, however,
Heb. 4, and especially verse 9. - (ED.)

The body of our
Saviour then remained in the grave during the solemn day of the sabbath, and He
rose again "the first day of the week." The Jews, against their
intentions, had been led into putting to death the Lord on the day of the feast
of the passover, which this year fell on the day before the sabbath, in order
that, in view of consequences precious to us, He should rise the first day of
the week. This fact has consecrated this day as "the Lord's-day," the
day of the resurrection, the commencement of an eternal era for us believers.
It is thus that it has become the solemn day of Christianity; not as an imposed
ordinance, but as a day of privilege which the conscience of a spiritual
Christian recognizes. Christians delight to observe this day, not, I repeat, as
an ordinance, but as being the Lord's day. (Rev. 1:10.) The spiritual
Christian understands that he cannot dispose of this day according to his
inclinations, for his own affairs, for journeys of pleasure or other
amusements, because it is the Lord's day. The day when the Lord came out of the
grave was not only the first of the week, in contrast with that which preceded
it; but the fact of the resurrection set apart this day as "the first
Sunday." Up to this moment, Sunday, the Lord's-day, had not existed.

What a glorious
day was that of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus! It is for us the end of death, and the
introduction to life eternal. For the Christian, eternal life has its starting-point in
the Saviour's resurrection. His death is the end of our life in Adam; His
resurrection is the end of death. He said, "I am the resurrection and the
life," not "the life and the resurrection." He must deliver us
from our first life, as well as from the death which characterized that life,
and was its judicial end, in order, by His resurrection, to begin our new life
in union with Him. The resurrection of Christ has then left behind it, for us,
our Adam-life and death; and this new life which succeeds death is necessarily eternal life, but
eternal life in resurrection, life "more abundantly." (John 10:10.) We possess
life, life forever, in present enjoyment, and soon on high it will be life in
glory. We have for "the end everlasting life."

It is easy to
understand why, from the time of Paul, Christians chose the first day of the
week, the day of the Lord's resurrection, to come together for the express
purpose of the breaking of bread. (Acts 20:7.) No one besides had meetings on that day. The
Gentiles knew nothing of it; the Jews, scattered everywhere, had their
synagogues wherein to assemble on the sabbath-day, the day before Sunday. Paul
took advantage of this day to preach Christ in the synagogues; but on the
morrow, the day that only Christians knew and celebrated as that of the
resurrection, he was found with them at the breaking of bread. By comparing
John 20 with the accounts given in the other Gospels, we see that after the
early morning of that remarkable day the risen Saviour had appeared to one and
another of His own. In John we find recounted His interview with Mary
Magdalene, so full of interest, whether on account of the touching way in which
the Lord dissipates Mary's anxiety, or because of the message with which He
charges her for His own, announcing that they were now in the same position as
He is before God, and in the same relationship as He to His Father.

But on the
evening of the same day we have something quite special. The occasions when the
Lord had showed Himself during that day had had a character more or less
individual; but in the evening we see the disciples gathered
together. Whatever may have been the
motive or character of their meeting - though doubtless they were occupied with
what they had seen and heard - the fact remains that they were gathered
together. How many things had occurred during the day! What words they had to
recount to one another! John tells us (verse 19), "the same day at
evening, being the first day of the week." Yes, the first Sunday. They had shut the doors for
fear of the Jews. It was not well on that day to be openly on the side of the
crucified One. The rulers of the Jews might well be exasperated against their
colleagues, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who had so boldly acted against
them in going to beg of Pilate the body of Jesus for burial. It is pleasant to
think that these two faithful and devoted men were among the gathered disciples
on that night. The Jews had received from the guardians of the sepulchre the
overwhelming news that the body of Jesus was no longer there, and they had
listened to the recital of the marvellous circumstances that had occurred.
(Matt. 28:11-15.) One can understand that their hatred was unmeasured, and
that the timid disciples should have been together with closed doors.

When thus
assembled "came Jesus" - in spite of closed doors "and stood in
the midst." No longer now a manifestation to Mary, to Simon, to two
disciples; it is His presence in the midst. It was the risen Saviour, ready to
ascend to glory - "the glory that He had with the Father before the world
was," but into which He was now going to enter as Man. He was in a body of
resurrection, which was superior to matter, so that, whether eating fish and
honey, or entering through closed doors, all alike were acts of power. He was
no more a Man of sorrows, He was no longer "in the likeness of sinful
flesh." (Rom. 8:3.) "The days of His flesh" were over. (Heb. 5:
7.) And He expresses this change when He says to His disciples, "These are
the words which I spake unto you, while I vas yet with you." (Luke 24:44.)
It is this risen Saviour that; the world neither can nor will see till He comes
in glory, who is found in the midst of His
gathered ones, sanctioning thus by His
presence the first assembly of His own after His resurrection on that day - the
first Sunday.

It was in their
midst that He said, "Peace be unto you." What words to proceed from
the mouth of the One who came from the cross, where He had made peace! Who came
in all the power of resurrection, a proof of the full acceptance of His
sacrifice by God; for when the disciples were yet in their sins, it could not
be a question for them of peace with God. Then the Lord shows them in His
resurrection body the marks of the death to which, in grace for them, He had
subjected Himself.

Following this,
let us remark an important statement - "Then were the disciples glad, when
they saw the Lord." The sight of the risen Lord in their midst is the
subject of their joy. Thomas was not with them; and when the other disciples
saw him, they gave him, in five words, a summary of that remarkable scene - "We have seen the Lord." The following Sunday - the
second Sunday - the Lord is again in their midst. We
cannot doubt but that during those intermediate days the Lord manifested
Himself in some way to His own; but, at all events, on the evening of the
second Sunday He was amongst them again when gathered.

How many
principles are to be found in these verses! (John 20:19, 20.) What a beautiful
type of our present gathering in the name of and around the person of the Lord!
Let us remark four things which are unfolded successively here. First, the
presence of the risen Lord in the midst of His own when assembled; second, the
peace which He announces to them on His road from the cross by the way of the
resurrection; third, the marks which He shows them in His resurrection body,
and which witness to the fact that He has been down into death for them, but
with that death now behind Him (see Rev. 1:17, 18); fourth, the result
produced in the heart of His disciples after the unfolding of all these
marvellous things, when they suddenly find themselves assembled around Him.
"Then were they glad when they saw the Lord."

In our day, in
spite of the evil which has come in, in spite of the ruin of the testimony of
the church on the earth, in spite of the great weakness of those who by grace
are gathered in His name on the ground and on the principles of the one body*
(Matt. 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 10:17), we can, on this same footing, experience
these four things which we have just considered.

*The one body
is a truth which we do not find in John. The disciples, in the first meeting of
which we have spoken, had not an idea of it, nor even in the early chapters of
the Acts; but now that the one body is revealed, it is a principle most
important to maintain in every assembly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.

What grace to
us! When on Sunday we are gathered for the breaking of bread at the Lord's
table, spread - need it be said! - on the ground of the one body, we have (may
we realize it more! ) all that the disciples had when gathered that first
Sunday. Yes, Jesus risen is personally present in our midst, although in a
spiritual way. (Matt. 18:20.) We enjoy the peace He brings and has made.
(Compare Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:17.) We have before us the touching tokens which
remind us of His death for us; i.e., the Lord's supper, which corresponds so well with the third
thing which we have considered; viz., Jesus showing His disciples His pierced
hands and side. And if we know and appreciate all this blessing, the result
will be deep joy. We can rejoice in having the Lord in our midst. How
desirable it would be to realize this presence, so that we might be able to say
to any absentees, "We have seen the
Lord;" and not, Such and such a
brother spoke so well - useful and precious as such ministry may be when given
to the Lord. The absent ones, on the other hand, would ask, Did you enjoy the
Lord's presence? not, What brother spoke?

May the Lord
Jesus so attach our hearts to Himself, that our gathering together, having
Himself for motive or object, may become increasingly what it really is, the
most precious thing in the world for us collectively. May we know how to
appreciate the mercy which, in a time of ruin, gives us the possibility of
having a special meeting, as in Acts 20:7, to remember our precious Saviour
together, and to enjoy His presence in the midst. How sweet to the heart of the
Christian who comprehends the thoughts of God on this subject! In going to the
worship-meeting, we may have the privilege of thinking that we do not go there
for ourselves, but as being invited thither by the Lord, to remember Him while
waiting for Him, and by Him to worship our God and Father, to whom He has
brought us. Therefore the intelligent Christian will not readily miss such a
meeting, except for reasons which hold good before the Lord.

Yes, the Lord
Jesus Himself is the motive and the end of our gathering together on the first
day of the week, the day of the resurrection. The great thing is to be occupied
with Him and not with ourselves; but if then our thoughts do turn to ourselves they should
include all the members of the body of Christ on the earth, a body whose
oneness is expressed at the Lord's table: "One bread, one body." (1
Cor. 10:17.) F. P.